Legitimacy of HR-departments

WU Vienna (earmarked funds)

Personnel departments have suffered from criticism in the recent years. So far only little research has been done on the roots of legitimation crisis of personnel departments however. Refering to a new institutionalist background this book investigates how top managers legitimize their personnel departments. Based on an empirical study with Austrian top managers a model is built that shows the role of responsibility for the legitimation of personnel departments. It is shown why top manager vary in their willingness to delegate responsibility to their personnel departments and why even personnel departments with a low performance can be seen as legitimate. The model offers a systematic analysis of possible roles of personnel departments and their correpsonding evaluation criteria. It allows to identify systematically roots of criticism. The book contributes to the development of a empirically based theory of personnel departments as well as to a theory of legitimacy.